Election Result

New Margin: LIB 12.3%

MP

Dennis Jensen (LIB) since 2004.

Profile

Tangney is an affluent electorate of 96 sq.km covering the southern shores of the Swan and Canning rivers. Mainly a residential area, it also includes the Murdoch University campus and the Canning Vale industrial area.

Redistribution

Loses the Labor voting suburbs of Ferndale, Langford and Lynwood to Swan while gaining Liberal voting Canning Vale from Canning. This lifts the Liberal margin for Tangney from 8.7% to 9.8%.

History/Trivia

Tangney was created in 1974 and named after Dame Dorothy Tangney, the first woman elected to the Senate, representing Labor from 1943 to 1968. The creation of Tangney came about after Western Australia became entitled to an extra seat, the first time a state was redistributed without all other states undergoing a boundary revision. Tangney was won at its first election by future Labor Minister John Dawkins, but he could not withstand the swing against Labor at the 1975 election following the Whitlam government dismissal. Tangney was represented by Liberal Peter Shack from 1977 to 1983, and again 1984 to 1993. Shack was once seen as future leadership contender but made two fatal mistakes. First, he was one of the plotters in the 1989 party room coup that deposed John Howard from the Liberal leadership. Second, as Shadow Health Minister for Andrew Peacock before the 1990 election, he held a press conference announcing that the Coalition did not have a detailed health policy, nor a good record in the area when last in government. He failed to make shadow ministry after the 1990 election defeat and retired at the 1993 election. He was succeeded by Daryl Williams, who served as Attorney-General in the Howard government before retiring at the 2004 election. Current MP Dennis Jensen has been something of a favourite of the Liberal Party's state and federal hierarchy, but has had trouble with his local Liberal branches, who have failed to re-endorse him as Liberal candidate before both the 2007 and 2010 election. On both occasions the Liberal Party state executive overturned the branch ballot.

Assessment

Liberal retain.

2010 BALLOT PAPER (5 Candidates)

Candidate Name

Party

BEST, Peter

The Greens

DOEPEL, David

Australian Labor Party

RAPP, Moyna

Family First

JENSEN, Dennis

Liberal

CHEW, Ka-ren

Christian Democratic Party

CANDIDATES

Peter Best

Greens

Best was brought up in inland Australia and has had a varied career, including designing and building water projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe, coaching junior sports and serving as a Councillor for the City of South Perth. A hydro-geologist by trade, he worked for thirteen years on aid programs in Africa. Best also worked in the state's north-west for six years and lived in Leeming for a decade before recently moving to South Perth, where he has served as a Councillor since 2007.

Doepel was born and raised in the electorate of Tangney. He has an undergraduate degree in Biology and post-graduate degrees in Theology and Pastoral Psychology. He was the inaugural Regional Director for the Western Australian Trade and Investment Office for the Americas (2005-2008) and returned to Perth in 2008 where he worked for then Premier Alan Carpenter. After the government's defeat Doepel took a position at Murdoch University where he oversaw research on renewable energy, water technology and mineral science. Doepel is now CEO of National Centre of Excellence in Desalination at Murdoch University.

48 year-old Dr Jensen is a defence scientist who previously worked for the CSIRO, and has particular expertise in nuclear technology. He had previously contested the Victorian seat of Corio at the 1998 federal election. During his first term, Jensen fell out with local party power-brokers. They engineered his defeat in a local party selection ballot, choosing former political staffer Matt Brown. However, with the support of John Howard, Jensen was restored to the candidacy by the party's State Executive. The pre-selection tableau was repeated ahead of the 2007 election. Jensen has attracted attention as one of the earliest public doubters of the idea of human induced global warning, though his views weren't exactly encouraged by the Howard government as it grappled with climate change during its last year in office.